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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Enduring to the end with a forgiving heart

AHHHHH I love Christmas!!!!! :) We had a beautiful Zone Conference with Presidente here in Forli last Thursday for Christmas. It was so beautiful and soooo happy. (OH and I finally got the packages. It was really funny. My District Leader, Anziano Lloyd handed my 3 big packages and then a box from deseret industry - something I ordered months ago. I opened the one from October - THANK YOU - and am saving the other two for Christmas. Patience. :) But seriously! Thank you sooooo much for the socks. They are AMAZING. They are so warm and comfortable. My feetsies are now so much happier.) L came to the Conference to help out with the cooking - we had some good ol' tacos. SO GOOD. One of the assistants was born here in Forli and taught L. It was such a happy occasion to see Anziano Christensen and Laura greeting each other after a year of not seeing one another. Happiness!!!!

I thought my heart was going to burst with happiness when we had this miracle on Saturday. Our inattiva, G that we have been working with CAME to an activity!!! It was a shock really. We came to her home on Friday night to read some scriptures with her and invited her the activity. As mentioned last week, J (our simpatizzanti) has been pushing her friend G to come back to church. Right before the activity on Saturday evening, my companion called out to me to hurry down the stairs. When I caught up, I saw G's children. Oh how the members were soooooo incredibly happy to see them! Then about half way through the activity, G herself showed up. :) Everyone greeted her with love. She stayed the rest of the evening. It was so tender and so beautiful!

Earlier that morning, we went to teach L and A, oppure, they taught us. Last week while we were trying to plan for them, we had this huge stupor of thought. They are so elect and so converted. So then, with the help of the Spirit, we asked for them to teach us. So A prepared a BEAUTIFUL lesson of Enduring to end (or persevering to the end in italiano) and forgiveness - how they go hand in hand. It was so wonderful and clear. I had never thought of how in order to endure to the end, we must be willing to have a forgiving heart. Yes both are important but to go so well together... wow. The gospel is so beautiful and simple. Comunque, Al planned this WONDERFUL lesson full of scriptures and even an article of Nelson Mandela. L and A are so kind and charitable. Once they are married and baptized, they are going to be such a HUGE strength for this special branch here in Forli.

Another quick miracle.... on Sunday I was starting to feel a little stressed due to our simpatizzanti who cannot keep commitments but have so much faith and for not reaching goals of FINDING people to teach. On our way home, we passed through a park and saw two people sitting on a bench. My wonderful companion immediately stopped her bike and started talking to them. They were so kind and so fun. We taught them the first lesson in a nut shell and have a return appointment with them tomorrow. Little blessing really help brighten the day. :)

Also, we have been teaching J, son of R (a recently reactivated memeber) and he is just progressing so much towards baptism. :) Hopefully we have a Christmas baptism. We shall keep you posted next week. WHEN WE SKYPE!!! (Oh and you will probably get to meet L and A)

I LOVE YOU!!!!!! Good luck getting ready for the holidays,. :) Thank you for your support and your love. We had a lesson about the family last night and I am just soooo lucky to have an amazing family.